I get asked this a lot.

What's it like living in America?

Well, different, obviously. After all, the cultures, traditions, food, even language, is different. You'd think that English is English; but there are so many nuances that I still get caught up over. So, here's my Malaysian-American English dictionary for you would-be travellers. Granted, these might not apply to everyone- but I thought I'd just list this smalltown Malaysian boy's learning experience over the years.

• Biscuit- A biscuit is not a biscuit. To us, biscuits are those baked cookie-like pastries. You know, those Khong Guan products. Here, a biscuit is a fluffy, flaky bread. In Malaysia, heck, we'd just call it a bun and be done with it. To many of us, a cookie is a chewy version of a biscuit.
• Tissue- To us, we'd be referring to Tissue paper. The kind you'd use to wipe your mouth. In fact, I grew up referring to even toilet paper as tissue. Here, typically refers to the soft paper you'd find in a gift basket. For the stuff to wipe your face, just ask for Kleenex.
• Lipgloss- Air gets helluva dry here, and your lips get cracked. Everytime I ask my wife to borrow her lipgloss, she'd give me a stupid look. Apparently, only women use that here; instead, ask for Chapstick.
• Boot- something you put on your feet to keep the snow out. If instead you're referring to the rear end of a car, it's called a trunk here.
• Bonnet- likewise, if you're trying to show off your muscle car and offer to open the bonnet to show off the 4.5-liter V8, you might catch some laughes. Little girls wear bonnets. It's called a hood here.
• Weed- to this smalltown boy, this means 'lalang'. Apparently this word has many meanings here. Including a plant which is a potent source of ahem, THC.
• Sausage- this one still gets to me. To me a sausage is a hot dog; a hot dog is a sausage. End of story. However, here, hot dogs and sausages may look alike, but a sausage is a spiced length of meat, typically served at breakfast. A hot dog on the other hand, according to my dear wife, is junkfood. And to confuse me further, a sausage can also be a flat circular piece of meat, which to this Malaysian boy, just looks like a piece of burger patty. And to top it up, there are also bratwursts. Why can't they just call all these sausages???
• Ramen- essentially, Maggi mee. Except Maggi's unheard of here.
• Supper- refers to dinner here. To us sophisticated Malaysians, this refers to that special meal that comes after dinner, typically at an open-air roadside stall with plastic furniture and rodents scurrying around the longkangs. Ah, this is making me hungry.
• Football- you probably already know this. Football here hasn't been the same since the Brits were vanquished from America. Someone apparently sat on a football and squished it to an oblong-shaped object. The main spectator sport here; source of multimillion dollar contracts and traumatic brain injury. No, what we know as football is referred to soccer here, often with a little snigger (blame it on American arrogance/ignorance, not knowing that football IS soccer in most of the world).
• Hockey- don't even mention that we know this as a game that is played on a field by people running around in shorts and a stick, after a little hard ball. When people here say hockey, it's safe to assume that it's ICE hockey here. I don't think people here know the other version even exists.
• Porridge- is called congee in Chinatown. Outside of Chinatown, it's an unknown food.
• Panadol- you know, that stuff you take for a fever? Acetaminophen, or paracetamol? Well, better luck asking for Tylenol.
• Singlet- called a wifebeater here. No, don't ask me why; I don't think I want to know.

Yup, I've been in North America since 1998, but truth be told, I sometimes feel like there so much more to know!